Next up in our mini series all about what it takes to move freight through the Southeastern states is Georgia. In this blog, we’re going to run through all things logistics in our home state, including the most popular routes through the state, frequently congested areas, state limits, laws, regulations, permits and what makes Georgia a unique state for freight movement.

We’ve already covered Alabama and Florida, if you want to you could go and read them after this one. But, for now we thought it’s only right that Georgia is next on our hit list as it’s where our head office is located and where our founders live. It’s also an incredibly interesting freight hub, as it’s home to the world’s busiest airport, deepwater seaports, the largest active railway in the Southeast and heavily used highway systems, Atlanta traffic is no joke! Let’s take a deeper look into Georgia’s freight routes.

Georgia’s Busiest Freight Routes 🚚🚚🚚🚚

We’ve written another blog all about Georgia’s top trucking routes. If you want to go and read more in depth about those, here’s a link to that blog: “Georgia’s Top Trucking Routes: How They Affect Your Freight” But in this blog let’s start with other popular Georgia freight transportation modes and then touch on the most popular trucking routes.

Air ✈️

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is the busiest airport in the world in terms of total passenger traffic and is dominated by Delta Air Lines, besides this, the airport is also a major air freight hub. Hartsfield-Jackson boasts extensive cargo facilities and has strong logistical connections to major highways, railroads and is also not too far from deepwater seaports. With all of this in mind, it’s no surprise that this airport handles a high volume of cargo, including imports and exports. Another huge selling point to this airport is the large number of different freight forwarders and brokers working on site, keeping everything moving super efficiently. Here’s some more quick facts about ATL airport that make it a popular freight hub:

• Foreign Trade Zone – Adjacent to the airport is a large 250 acre foreign trade zone. Which is a fantastic addition as it allows businesses and other users to import cargo but delay, reduce or eliminate import duties. By avoiding these costs, users and business owners are able to reduce costs significantly on International trade.
• Size and Facilities – The cargo facility at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is huge. It has around 1.5 million square feet of cargo handling space at the north, midfield and south cargo complexes.
• High-Volume Access – Each area has its’ own stands, refuelling systems and dockside access to popular interstates 75, 85 and 285, this makes facilitating quick ground transportation to and from the airport possible.

So, from one major logistics solution to the next, keep on reading to learn more about the two major seaports in Georgia. ⬇️

Seaports 🚢

Port of Savannah

The port of Savannah is one of the U.S.’s major container ports and actually ranks in third place for the busiest U.S. port. It’s in a superior location, with a global carrier network and fast-to-market service record, which provides vital links to international markets. This impressive port can also accommodate multiple large vessels at a time, due to its’ 10,000 feet of contiguous berth space, which also makes scheduling more flexible and adjusting to shippers needs easier as a port with more berth space, can accommodate docking more easily, with less vessel waiting times.

What else makes the port of Savannah so great is its’ interstate connectivity. It has immediate access to the I-16 (East/West) and the I-95 (North/South) which means key cities and facilities throughout the Southeast and Midwest can be reached within one or two days by road. But, let’s not forget the port of Savannah is actually closest and fastest by rail to major population centers, including: Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, Memphis and Orlando. We will dive into Georgia’s extensive rail solutions in just a minute, but keep this in mind.

Port of Brunswick

Brunswick port is another deepwater port and number one in the nation for roll on roll off (Ro/Ro) cargo, i.e. wheeled freight, cars, motorcycles, trucks, buses, trailers, etc. The port is situated in a fantastic location too, it’s located around a 3-5 hour drive from major markets like, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Orlando with immediate access to the I-95 and access from there to I-10 and the I-16. Not forgetting it also has fantastic connections to the CSX (freight railroad) and Norfolk Southern meaning as a multimodal option it can also offer the fastest East Coast rail connections from the port to states like, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and Georgia. So as you can tell it’s in a perfect location.

To fully understand how these ports move freight so efficiently, we must cover the rail system that tie it all together. ⬇️

Rail 🚝

We’ve just touched on the railroads slightly above. But, Georgia has an extensive rail freight system and is made up of over 4600 miles of active rail lines, making it the largest rail network in the Southeast and moves millions of tons of freight annually. Freight is primarily moved on these rails through Georgia’s two large Class 1 railroads, CSX and Norfolk Southern. However, it’s not only these two railroads that make up the whole rail network, the state also has around 26 smaller short-line railroads including companies like Georgia Central Railway, Georgia Southwestern Railroad and the Heart of Georgia Railroad that all connect to the larger ones and 4 Amtrak routes. Due to Georgia’s location, the railways have direct access to the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Midwest regions of the United States making it an integral part of freight movement in the Southeastern states.

All of the above including, air, sea and rail carry a huge share of Georgia’s freight. However, trucks still do a lot of the heavy lifting, especially in final mile delivery. ⬇️

Road 🛣🚚

Georgia is a well connected state, especially in terms of its’ roadways. A truck that leaves Georgia can reach 80% of the U.S. population within a 2 day drive because of its’ strategic location and fantastic interstate highway access. In fact, Atlanta is one of the few U.S cities where 3 major interstates cross, making it a critical hub for logistics. Here’s some of the most popular interstates:

I-75

The I-75 is a major North-South Interstate Highway, starting down in the Southeastern regions of the U.S. it runs all of the way up to the Great Lakes. It passes through 6 different states along the way, including: Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan. The I-75’s route through Georgia – It enters Georgia near Lake Park and continues North bound until it reaches Macon, where it insects the I-16 East bound. After Macon, the I-75 does not meet another major intersection until it hits the Atlanta metropolitan area. Once the I-75 hits the Downtown Atlanta area, it then runs concurrently with the I-85, these areas of the highways are some of the most traffic-prone in the nation. Once it’s through the Atlanta metro area, the I-75 travels through the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Georgia as it carries on toward Chattanooga, TN.

I-85

The I-85 is another major North-South Interstate Highway, that starts off in Montgomery, AL and passes through 5 states, including Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and up to Virginia. It enters Georgia near West Point and LaGrange, and works its’ way up to and through Atlanta, where it merges with the I-75 for a stretch known as the Downtown Connector (as we’ve mentioned above). Once the I-85 has made its’ way passed Atlanta it heads Northeast and eventually crosses the Savannah River into South Carolina.

I-20

The I-20 runs East-West through Georgia, coming from Alabama near Tallapoosa and exiting Georgia into South Carolina near Augusta. It passes through major cities in Georgia, including Atlanta, Douglasville and Covington and merges with the I-75 and I-85 in Downtown Atlanta. But it is another interstate highway in Georgia renowned for it’s high volume of traffic, because of this trucks are mostly required to use the I-285 perimeter around the city.

Intermodal Facilities 🏢

Intermodal facilities are crucial hubs for the seamless transferring of freight between all different modes of cargo transportation. They play a crucial part in Georgia’s logistics field. For example, our biggest advantage in Georgia is our port to rail connectivity, at the Port of Savannah, the Mason Mega Rail is the largest on-terminal intermodal facility in North America, which gives shippers great connection to inland major markets without long drayage hauls. But, that’s just one example, there are tons of intermodal facilities up and down the state that are accommodating towards all kinds of freight including specialized and heavy haul and have the infrastructure and equipment needed for the transfer of heavy cargo and have direct access to major highways.

Challenges Of Moving Freight In Georgia 😰

1. Infrastructure & Route Restrictions – Georgia’s roads are made up of a real mix of terrains including: ageing infrastructures, tight city areas, rugged mountain passes, modern multi-lane highways and urban streets. Which all create a ton of  routing challenges, especially when moving oversize and overweight freight as a lot of the roads in the area have restrictions like bridge clearances and older roadways that have stricter weight and height limits, etc.
2. Congestion – We’ve touched on this earlier in this blog. But it’s no secret that Atlanta traffic is among some of the worst ranking in the United States. But it’s not only Atlanta that experiences bad congestion, multiple other Georgia cities see high volumes of traffic. These congested areas lead to significant delays and lost productivity.
3. Weather Impacts – Throughout the year Georgia experiences a significant shift in weather conditions, with some extreme weather events hitting the state too. From tropical storms, winter ice, fog in the low-lying mountain areas, to heavy rain causing flash floods. We really do experience all different weather types, which can make planning routes more difficult and delay some moves.
4. Urban Delivery Challenges – Delivering freight into urban areas like, areas of Atlanta, Macon, Savannah and Augusta can prove tricky because of narrow entry points, limited space and challenges manoeuvring large equipment, etc.

Georgia Specific Permits & Restrictions 📑

Georgia implements strict laws and rules around moving oversize, overweight freight. The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) provides transportation permits to contractors, consultants, truck operators and freight businesses for these kinds of moves.

Oversize Load Permit

An oversize load permit is required when your freight exceeds any of these limits:

Width – Over 8ft 6in

Height – Over 13ft 6in

Length – Over 53ft for trailers and over 75ft overall.

Overweight Load Permit

These permits are needed when a load exceeds the following weights:

Any load over 80,000lbs gross vehicle weight or 20,340 for a single axle and 34,000lbs on a tandem axle. Although these are the states laws, always check things like bridge crossings along your route and their weight limits, because these can vary and can determine a route.

Superload Permit

The give away is in the name, a superload permit is required for any extremely large or heavy freight, and for a load exceeding:

Weight – Over 150,000lbs

Width – Over 16ft

Height – Over 15ft 6in

Length – Over 125ft

Superload permits take longer to process, due to the sheer size of the freight they require additional engineering review by the DOT. The DOT will perform detailed structural analysis to ensure surfaces along the route can accommodate the cargo, in depth route planning and surveys need to be carried out to move the freight with public safety at the forefront.

Oversize/Overweight Freight Movement Windows ⏰

Oversize permits are valid for 10 days in the state of Georgia, and movement of any oversize load is permitted 30 minutes after sunrise to 30 minutes before sunset, 6 days a week, and there is no movement allowed on a Sunday. However, in Atlanta, the area bounded by and including I-285 allows for no permit movement between 7:00am – 9:00am and 4:00pm – 6:00pm Monday to Friday. Excluding major holidays, they are not permitted for oversize travel entirely.

Escorts 🚨

When loads exceed these limits, they require escort vehicles to be present during their movement:

Length

> 75′ = 1 escort or 8″ flashing amber light at each corner of the rear of the load.

> 100′ = 1 escort

> 125′ = 2 escorts

Width

Over 12′ up to and including 14’8″ = 1 rear escort or amber light on Interstates or limited access highways. Or 2 escorts (1 escort and rear amber light) on two-lane roads.

Over 14’8″ up to and including 16′ = 2 escorts on 2-lane roads, and 1 escort on limited access /Interstates.

Over 16′ = determined on a case by case bases.

Height

Over 15’6″ = 1 escort with height pole.

Any oversize load that needs a permit in Georgia also requires “Oversize Load” signs with flags on all 4 corners and any other overhang corners. An up to date Georgia light sticker is also needed when using flashing amber beacon lights. More information on all of these regulations can be found on the Georgia Department of Transportation website.

How Can We Successfully Move Freight Through Georgia? 😁

Moving freight in Georgia has its’ challenges but it also opens up doors to some of the best connected logistics routes in the country. From major railroads, ports and interstates, Georgia gives shippers plenty of options to keep their cargo moving. With smart planning, the correct permits, and a knowledgable team behind you, navigating the peach state has never been easier.

If you need help moving freight through the Southeastern states, in particular Georgia then you’ve come to the right place. We know these areas like the back of our hands and can get your “impossible” shipments to their destination without a hitch. Contact us directly on: Phone: 888-SHIP-911 or use the link below to discuss your shipping needs 😊

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